


Time Of Your Life

by DoctorV



Series: Archive: Doc's Old-Ass Stargate Fic (SG1 & SGA) [8]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Cheap Knock-Off Groundhog Day, Established Relationship, Jack Keeps Dying, M/M, Time Loop, nerds being nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 20:05:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13982364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorV/pseuds/DoctorV
Summary: A race against time to save Jack's life with the help of a mysterious artifact.





	Time Of Your Life

**Author's Note:**

> Archiving some old old OLD fanfic of mine. This was originally posted to LiveJournal 07/16/2008, with the author's note:  
> "For jd_junkie. "A race against time with Jack or Daniel injured" in any season, "ER preferred," no "permanent character death," and no "gratuitous character bashing." Hopefully this is acceptable. ^_^  
> I know it's already been done in a sense, but the "time" part of the request grabbed at my brain and refused to let go. Also, the term _déjà vécu_ is used instead of the more common _déjà vu_. This is more technically accurate and done on purpose because Daniel is likely to know the difference. (Sorry for the delay!)"

"Hey, Sam."

 

"Oh, Daniel, hey...hi," Sam muttered absently, staring at the computer.

 

Raising an eyebrow, Daniel observed her for a moment before clearing his throat. "I just thought I'd stop by, say hi before I go shave my head and pledge my eternal devotion to the System Lords."

 

"Oh okay."

 

Daniel waited a few moments, imagining gears clicking into place in the woman's head. A confused expression creeping onto her face, Sam finally turned to look at him. "Wait, what?"

 

"Hi, Sam!" he greeted her cheerfully, adding a little wave as he stepped out of the doorway and into the lab.

 

Sam smiled sheepishly, then grinned. "Sorry, I've been a little distracted since the Colonel accidentally hit the 'on' switch on this thing."

 

"Ooh, a new toy?"

 

With a small shake of her head, eyebrows furrowing, Sam turned back to the computer screen. "I'm not sure. It looks a  _ little _ like some of the artifacts in the database, but at the same time..."

 

"It's completely different?" Daniel finished for her.

 

Sam glanced up and they shared simultaneous grimaces of understanding. "Yeah, pretty much. Actually, I was about to call you to see if any of the markings on it say anything... _ useful _ ."

 

"'Push here to complete installation of Big Honkin' Space Gun'?"

 

"Something like that," Sam chuckled.

 

"I can give it a try, sure," he replied, bending a little to get a closer look at the artifact. The whole thing was not much bigger than Daniel's head, with a square base a few inches tall and a small, squat, rounded pillar rising from the center of it. On each of the four sides of the base was a small square that looked like a button. As far as the markings went, there weren't many. The most prominent of them, written all the way around the pillar, seemed to say...

 

"'Life...time'?"

 

"Lifetime?" Sam frowned in thought. "Do you think it could be a...a record of someone's life?"

 

"A biography?" Daniel murmured, following her train of thought.

 

Eyes widening in sudden excitement, Sam grinned up at him. "Maybe of a scientist."

 

Daniel grinned back. "One who developed a 'Big Honkin' Space Gun'?"

 

"Colonel O'Neill would like that," Sam laughed. She was about to say more when the klaxons abruptly went off, "Unscheduled offworld activation!" sounding throughout the mountain.

 

"Where... _ is _ Jack?" Daniel asked, finally remembering why he had come looking for Sam in the first place. He hadn't been able to find Jack anywhere, or Teal'c for that matter, and had hoped that finding at least one member of his team would lead to finding Jack.

 

Now he had a sinking feeling he knew where the man was.

 

"He was..." From the look on her face, Sam had leapt to the same conclusion he had. "He and Teal'c took some new recruits out on a routine training exercise. Colonel Adams was scheduled to do it, but he broke his arm and Colonel O'Neill offered to fill in for him."

 

They stared at each other for just a moment, an unspoken understanding passing between them that some routine training exercises were anything but, before they both raced for the door. In their rush, Daniel bumped into the artifact and almost knocked it off the table. He hurriedly steadied it and followed Sam out of the room and toward the control room.

 

Abandoned in the lab, the square button Daniel had accidentally pressed began to glow a faint light-blue.

 

* * *

 

_ "Sorry, sir," the young recruit mumbles, misery in every line of his body. "They surprised us. Colonel O'Neill thought they were there to train, too. They were surprised we were there." _

 

_ "Captain, where's Colonel O'Neill?" _

 

_ "The staff blast...we couldn't get to the gate until now. And the Colonel... If we'd gotten him here sooner..." _

 

_ Staring down at his boots, the man steps aside to reveal the stretcher Teal'c and one of his fellow trainees is carrying. The body on it is far too still. _

 

_ "Oh my God." _

 

_ "Jack..." _

 

"Jack!"

 

Daniel sat up with a gasp. Disoriented, he stared around at his surroundings in confusion. He had been in the control room after the alarm and hurried to the Gateroom when Captain Reyes called in. They had been under fire but had beaten the small group of Jaffa and were requesting permission to return.

 

"A dream?" he murmured, frowning. It had felt so  _ real _ .

 

Groaning, Daniel swung his legs over the side of the cot. He remembered now, he had been up late finishing a translation and had chosen to crash on the cot in his office rather than go home for the night.

 

As he got to his feet, Daniel decided to go find Jack. Dream or not, he didn't think he would be able to shake the sight of Jack's unmoving body lying limp on a stretcher until he saw the man safe and sound.

 

* * *

 

"Hey, Sam."

 

"Oh, Daniel, hey...hi," Sam muttered absently, staring at the computer.

 

Daniel frowned.  _ Déjà vécu _ hit him like a sledgehammer. His search for Jack had been unproductive.

 

"Hey, Sam?"

 

"Hm? Oh! Daniel, hey. I was getting ready to call you. Sorry, I've been distracted since the Colonel accidentally hit the 'on' switch on this artifact. There are some markings on it that--"

 

"You want me to take a look?"

 

Sam flashed him a grateful smile. "Thanks."

 

Moving closer, Daniel didn't smile back. He was too distracted by the artifact sitting on the table. He knew what the markings would say even before he saw them. "Life time," he murmured.

 

"Lifetime? Maybe...a record of someone's life?"

 

"Maybe..." Daniel muttered, trailing off. A faint glow coming from the artifact suddenly caught his attention. The markings on one of the square buttons on the side of the artifact's base was glowing a faint blue. "I don't remember  _ that _ \--"

 

" _ Unscheduled offworld activation! _ "

 

Sam glanced up as the klaxons sounded. At the look on her face, Daniel's heart sank.

 

"Jack's offworld, isn't he?"

 

"Yeah. Wait, how did you--?"

 

"Nevermind," Daniel groaned, running for the door.

 

* * *

 

_ "Sorry, sir," the young recruit mumbles, misery in every line of his body. "They surprised us. Colonel O'Neill thought they were there to train, too. They were surprised we were there." _

 

_ "This isn't right." _

 

_ "Captain, where's Colonel O'Neill?" _

 

_ "The staff blast...we couldn't get to the gate until now. And the Colonel... If we'd gotten him here sooner..." _

 

_ Staring down at his boots, the man steps aside to reveal the stretcher Teal'c and one of his fellow trainees is carrying. The body on it is far too still. _

 

_ "Oh my God." _

 

_ "Not again..." _

 

Gasping as he woke up, Daniel abruptly sat up on his cot and swung his legs over the side. Something was happening. Something that repeatedly led to Jack's death.

 

He didn't even bother looking for the man this time, he headed straight for the lab.

 

* * *

 

"Sam! I need to see that artifact."

 

Sam jerked in surprise as he hurried into the room. "Daniel? How did you know--"

 

"No time," he muttered. "Has Jack already left?"

 

"I--Yeah, he left this morning to cover a routine training exercise for Colonel Adams."

 

"Broken arm?"

 

"Daniel, what's going on?"

 

"A timeloop," Daniel replied. Then he glanced up at her, shrugging as he raised one eyebrow and then the other. "I think."

 

"You  _ think _ there's a timeloop? What caused it?"

 

Daniel held up the artifact. "Ah... _ this _ ."

 

" _ That _ ?" Sam asked incredulously. "But...it's almost out of power."

 

That was new. "What?"

 

Pointing to the computer screen, Sam said, "Whatever's powering that thing is almost drained. See?"

 

The screen was full of numbers and letters that probably made more sense to Sam than they did to him. "Well...how much power has it already  _ used _ ?"

 

"Well assuming that fully charged it's--"

 

"Sam!"

 

Sam winced. "Rough estimate, I'd say about three-fourths."

 

Staring at her in horror, Daniel murmured, "What if it's losing power with each loop?"

 

"That makes sense. How many loops have there been?"

 

"I think this is the third."

 

"Wow," Sam said. "If it was fully charged when the loops started, it's losing power  _ fast _ ."

 

"Then I have to figure this  _ out _ fast." Carefully turning the artifact in his hands, Daniel read the markings over again. The ones on the glowing button translated to "guardian," or something similar. The markings on the pillar still said the same thing he remembered.

 

"Lifetime," he muttered. "Sam, you said Jack turned this on?"

 

"Yeah." She smiled wryly. "But I'm not sure how yet."

 

"It's  _ connected _ to him. It's trying to save Jack's life, that's why it's looping when it is!"

 

"Colonel O'Neill?" Sam gasped. "What happened to him?"

 

"It hasn't happened yet," Daniel said, setting the artifact down and hurrying for the door. He was halfway to the control room when the klaxons started.

 

* * *

 

_ "Sorry, sir," the young recruit mumbles, misery in every line of his body. "They surprised us. Colonel O'Neill thought they were there to train, too. They were surprised we were there." _

 

_ "Captain, where's--" _

 

_ Shoving his way forward, Daniel grasps the man's shoulders and meets his eyes with a disconcerting intensity. "I need you to tell me  _ **_everything_ ** _ , Captain Reyes. Every detail from when the Jaffa got there to when you returned." _

 

_ "Dr. Jackson! What is the meaning of this?" _

 

_ "This is  _ **_important_ ** _ , Captain." _

 

_ Staring down at his boots, the man nods and begins to speak... _

 

Daniel was off the cot and out of his office before he finished waking up.

 

* * *

 

"Is Jack offworld?"

 

"Hm?"

 

"Sam!"

 

"Daniel? Uh, yeah. He and Teal'c are--"

 

"On a routine training exercise. He's filling in for Colonel Adams, who broke his arm."

 

Sam's brow furrowed in confusion. "How did you know that?"

 

"No time," Daniel muttered, running for the infirmary.

 

Staring after him for a moment, Sam finally turned her attention back to the computer screen, trying to figure out how to turn off the artifact before it ran out of power completely.

 

* * *

 

Dr. Frasier was dying a slow death by paperwork when Daniel appeared in the doorway of her office. "Daniel?"

 

"Janet! Get everything you'd need to treat a staff blast and meet me in the Gateroom."

 

"Has someone been hurt?"

 

"Not yet."

 

" _ What? _ "

 

"Please!"

 

The desperation in his voice had her nodding acceptance as she stood up. "Give me ten minutes."

 

" _ Hurry. _ "

 

* * *

 

_ Explaining the situation while holding a Zat proves an effective way to convince the control room technicians to dial up the planet Jack and Teal'c took the recruits without having to answer questions that would eat up precious time. Janet just double-checks her supplies and prepares to go through the 'Gate. _

 

_ The Jaffa guarding the Stargate is taken by surprise and immediately downed by a Zat, the others are too busy dealing with P-90 fire elsewhere to notice their appearance. Daniel takes off at a run, occasionally glancing back to make sure Dr. Frasier is keeping up. _

 

_ For such a short woman, Janet is fast. _

 

_ Daniel switches on his radio and tells them to expect him and Dr. Frasier in minutes. The warning keeps him from getting shot in the head as he skids around the corner of a stone structure, too weather-damaged to be good for anything but cover from weapons-fire. _

 

_ "Jack?" _

 

_ "Here!" Teal'c calls them over. Captain Reyes, next to him, is hovering over Colonel O'Neill who is laying on the ground, far too still for Daniel's tastes. Propped against a large rock, the first aid kit sits opened and scattered in the rush to find something useful in it. _

 

_ Captain Reyes looks up in relief and gratefully turns Jack over to Dr. Frasier's care, picking up his own P-90 and going back to helping hold off Jaffa. _

 

_ Kneeling beside Jack, Daniel meets the man's groggy gaze and smiles. Jack returns the smile and as Janet efficiently digs through her bag for what she needs, Daniel leans down to whisper, "We made it, Jack. We got to you in time." _

 

_ "...yeah, Danny...you made it..." _

 

_ Lightyears away, on another planet, the artifact on the table in Sam's lab stops glowing. _

 

* * *

 

When Daniel woke up to a sore back and dull grey concrete again, his heart sank. He had been so  _ sure _ he had it this time...

 

Then the steady beep of a heart-monitor finally reached his ears. The sleepiness clouding his mind slowly lifted and he took in his surroundings. He was in the infirmary, and in the next bed over was...

 

"Jack."

 

He remembered now. Janet had successfully gotten Jack stabilized and, once the Jaffa were incapacitated, they had gotten him back to the SGC. As soon as Daniel came into sight, however, he had been Zatted.

 

He frowned. Sure he had threatened the Gateroom techs, and maybe that was sufficient cause to suspect there was something wrong with him, but couldn't they have  _ asked _ before shooting?

 

Sitting up, Daniel slid out of the bed and moved to stand next to Jack's. He wasn't restrained, or under guard, so presumably Janet had spoken on his behalf.

 

Whatever had happened after he lost consciousness could wait, though. Jack was waking up. And as he took the man's hand in his own and returned the weak smile, Daniel was content to live in the moment. Just for now.


End file.
